For certain situations, medical specialists and legislation have laid
down limits for the acceptable continuous sound pressure level L
eq
(A) .
When new roads or railroads are planned, these rules must be
complied with. For example, in German residential areas, noise levels
of 65 dB (A) during the day and 55 dB (A) at night must not be
exceeded. The WHO even recommends lower values of only 55 dB (A)
during the day and 45 dB (A) at night. These values are often grossly
exceeded in many places in Germany and other highly industrialized
countries.
Exposure to a continuous sound pressure level of more than 85 dB is
considered to be a health risk. Literature references about sound can
be found under
www.sinusmess.de
.
Sound Level Measurement with Boogie
Boogie enables you to measure sound levels easily and to assess them
objectively. The instrument is easy to operate because of the built-in
microprocessor which allows Boogie to be employed even by
inexperienced users.
Boogie always works with a built-in A-filter and the time weighting
"Fast". In addition to the instantaneous value of the sound level
L
p
and
the maximum value
L
pmax
in a time period, Boogie can also measure
L
eq
by integrating over a time period. This mode of operation is usually
only found in bigger and more expensive instruments.
Therefore, Boogie is the ideal instrument for measuring:
•
traffic noise
•
industrial noise
•
neighborhood noise
•
leisure noise
•
occupational noise
Type 2 accuracy according to IEC 60651 and IEC 60804 guarantees
reliable measurement results for the user. The accuracy of
measurements can be considerably increased by calibrating the
instrument before performing the measurements.
Boogie can not be used for legally binding measurements in Germany
because legislation stipulates that for this type of measurements a
calibrated sound level meter of type 1 must be used.
However, modern type 2 devices such as Boogie provide measurement
results exact enough for assessing noise situations in many cases.
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The [
SET
] button starts and stops all measurements except L
p
.
Calibration
For calibration, a ¼” calibrator with a nominal level of 94 dB must be
attached. After choosing the CAL operating mode, the expected level of
94 dB is shown. Please note that the ¼” adapter of the calibrator in
connection with our microphone causes a slight shift in the sound level.
By repeatedly pressing the [
RANGE
] button, the actual level of the
calibrator can be set within the range 93.5 dB to 94.5 dB in 0.1 dB
steps. The calibration is then started with [
SET
]. The mode display CAL
blinks during the calibration and stops blinking when the calibration is
finished.
The calibration is stored with [
SET
]; the calibration values also remain
stored in the instrument when it is switched off.
All instruments are shipped calibrated ex works.
Instantaneous Sound Level
In the instantaneous sound level (L
p
) operating mode, it is possible to
choose between automatic (indicated by
AUTO
) and manual setting of
the measurement range by repeatedly pressing the [
RANGE
] button.
The selected measurement range is indicated by the limit values of the
bar graph.
When the selected measurement range is not within these limits, no
measurement value is displayed. This is indicated by the arrows
=
under-range indicator and
= over-range indicator.
Maximum Sound Level
In this operating mode the maximum value of the instantaneous sound
level (L
pmax
) within a measurement period is calculated. The start and
end of the measurement period are set by pressing the [
SET
] button.
Before beginning the measurement, the desired measurement range
must be selected with the [
RANGE
] button. During a measurement
period, the bar graph shows the instantaneous value of the sound level
and the digital display indicates the current maximum value. After
stopping the measurement with [
SET
], the maximum value remains
visible. If an overload occurs during the measuring time, it will be
indicated again after stopping the measurement, in which case the
measurement is invalid.
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